Spring 2006
Issue #145
After Katrina
This year, Shelterforce is looking at the direct consequences of Hurricane Katrina and what it means for community development as a whole. In this issue, we present a group of articles that provide an overview of the politics, planning and organizing that preceded and followed the hurricane. Also in this issue, an article about a downtown Oakland housing development aimed at stemming the gentrification being encouraged by the city’s mayor.
Fundraising Practices in Community Organizing
How do we grow or even stabilize when we’ve topped out our dues income and have to do more and more to keep the level of foundation support we have?
Designing a Socially Just Downtown
Mayor Brown’s plan for a new downtown in Oakland was stymied by a resurgence of grassroots housing advocacy
Monkey See, Monkey Do
The people who staff antipoverty programs hardly ever get interviewed, although they’re primary sources of non-ideological information about the grassroots problems of the poor.
The Shifting Landscape of New Orleans
While planners and developers redraw the city map, displaced residents struggle to have a role in rebuilding New Orleans.
A National Spotlight on Local Capacity
Will Hurricane Katrina change the way intermediaries do business?
Picking Up The Pieces
Hurricane Katrina forced organizing groups to stretch to their limits, but it also showcased their strengths as never before
Katrina: A Political Disaster
The handling of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath underscores the human disaster resulting from the ascendancy of right-wing ideas and corporate domination of the federal government, which extols market forces, individualism and private charity over public responsibility and the common good.
NYC Tenants Don’t Want Tourists
Tenants in New York City are getting fed up as growing numbers of tourists camp out in their buildings. Landlords have taken to evicting tenants from single room occupancy buildings […]
Meanest Cities
Sarasota, Florida, tops a list of the meanest cities in America compiled by the National Coalition for the Homeless and National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Sarasota passed a […]
More Budget Follies
President Bush issued another round of proposed cuts to housing and social service programs in February as he sent his latest budget to Congress. Having failed in 2005 to move […]
Settlement Not Enough?
In the second largest settlement ever involving an alleged predatory lender, Ameriquest agreed to a $325 million settlement in January after a two-year investigation led by the California attorney general. […]
Victory in Lead Poison Fight
Anti-lead advocates scored a big win in court in February when a jury ruled that three paint companies sold products they knew contained toxic lead. The Rhode Island attorney general […]
Designing Affordable Housing
Good design and affordability are not mutually exclusive, but finding help to bring these two together can be tough.
Still Riding Route 61
A labor/community partnership stops a fare hike and gives workers a boost
Raising Voices
In 1990, Atlanta’s per capita income was below that of its metro area. But in 2004, after years of encouraging professionals to move to the city’s downtown and neighborhoods, its […]